


Rift

by orphan_account



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, War, awesome mama amaya, fixing ingrained racism is difficult, romance but nothing until like the very end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 00:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17131784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In order to get out of his mission to kill the Princes, Soren joins the war effort at the Rift. When an Elf on the enemy side decides not to kill him, he needs to re-think if Elves are really as bad as he thought.





	Rift

Spring had begun to shift into Summer, and a warm wind blew though the Katiolian forest. Claudia snored noisily, tired from the trip down the mountain, but Soren was restless. His mind circled quickly around his mission and what it meant.

Soren was a fighter, and always had been. He was the youngest head of the crown’s guard in the known history of Katolis, and in his short time as leader had slayed many elves. But a killer? Could he really do that? To people he knew so well? And part of the royal family at that!

He sat up and tended the dying fire, kept only alive by gentle breeze. Weeks ago, their father had sent them out to save the human Princes and return the Dragon egg to him. Only he had given Soren a secret objective; make sure the princes don’t return- and if needed, kill them.

And although Soren understood the reasons why his father wanted the princes dead, he doubted that he could finish the task. It’s wasn’t that he didn’t think he could physically kill them- oh no, that would be easy- but could he bring himself to actually do it? That was much foggier.

Only hours ago, this had seemed so far away. Yes, he had been given the task, but him and Claudia had no idea were to even find the princes, but now, thanks to Claudia’s weird glowy spell, they would be heading out to their location in the morning. And for all he knew, he could be a murderer before he fell asleep again.

He remembered his time spent with his marks in the castle, and grimaced. They practically grew up together. Claudia had always been busy studying her dark magic, so Soren had often spent time with the royal boys to ease his boredom. He honestly couldn’t remember a time where little Ezran had not been in the castle, causing mischief with Bait. Soren could remember running around the courtyard with Ezran piggybacking on his shoulders.

Soren bit the inside of his cheek. He knew he wouldn’t be able to bring him self to kill the kid, he was like ten, and was already in danger from the elf company he had. Though Soren didn’t like Callum nearly as much as Ezran, the idea of hurting him didn’t rest any lighter on his shoulders. Sure, he was a bit of a dweeb, but that didn’t warrant death!

He stood to wake Claudia, but hesitated- he couldn’t tell her what their dad wanted him to do! She wouldn’t believe him. She would tell their father. Or even worse, she could make him go through with it!

Staring down at his sleeping sister, he began to doubt her intentions. Would she do that? Make him kill the princes if she knew that was what their father wanted? Would she do it herself? No, he knew she was better than that. But still, telling her seemed like a bad idea.

If he was the only one tasked with killing the princes if he found them, then he would have to be sure not to find them. Claudia was to smart for him to push her off their track, but if he left, and she found them on her own, everything would be fine right? Sure, there was that elf traveling with them, but if she hadn’t hurt the princes yet, there must be a reason to keep them alive.

So that was it; he would sneak away, Claudia would find the boys, bring them home, and their dad would be forced to keep them alive since they’d be in the public eye.

But… where would he go? Soren wouldn’t be able to go home, at least not until Ezran had been crowned, which for all he knew could take years. But it didn’t matter, he wasn’t going to kill innocent people.

As he stared into the embers of the fire, he recalled the ceaseless battles of the Rift. Elven magic had brought up lava to the surface of the battleground, making it more dangerous than any other. The Elves had begun to turn the tide of battle, and things were not looking good.

General Amaya had moved back to her station at the Rift, maybe she would let him join. Could he be used there? It would probably suck, but maybe that was where he belonged.

He sighed and took a piece of papyrus out of Claudia’s bag, scribbling a quick note for her.

“Finish the mission, don’t try and find me, don’t tell Dad.”

Silently, he woke up his horse and rode out into the night.

 

* * *

 

He passed north of the Cursed Caldera, where Claudia lights had flown to only hours ago. On horseback he and his sister had traveled much faster than the Princes had on foot, and now he was riding right on past them towards the rift. Even from a distance he could smell the sulfur smoke. In the dark of the night he could see the soft glow from the molten battlefield.

The sun rose slowly, sending a strange red light though the smog and smoke.

He reached the end of the tree line to see two human scouts who pointed him towards the brick gate of the human encampment.

The whole set up was quite impressive, with countless large tents making up the barracks. He rode past the infirmary and saw the newly injured being brought in. The men and women were all covered in cuts slashed and burns from the battleground. Soren tied up his horse at the stable and headed in to Amaya’s tent.

The General wasn’t there, but still the tent was not empty, a mousy girl read in the corner, she stood quickly and confused as he entered. “Can I help you?”

Was he in the wrong place? “Is this where I can find General Amaya?” He asked.

“Oh, yes, she will return from the battlefield shortly.” She put the book down “I’m Joan, Amaya’s current interpreter.” Joan held her hand out for a handshake.

Before he could meet it Amaya arrived behind him, followed by two medics tending her minor wounds. She brushed them away and shrugged off her armor in a heap. She looked tired from her night out

 The General then signed to them. After a moment of silence, she snapped her fingers to get Joan’s attention, then re-signed her words.

Joan blurted out the translation in surprise. “What has brought you to the Rift?”

It took Soren a second to figure out that the question was for him. Joan obviously wasn’t on the same level of interpreting as Gren was.

Soren addressed Amaya, trying to look as professional as he could. “I have come to offer my skills at the Rift.”

She scowled at him. “Go home, Soren.”

“What?!” He protested “I’m a soldier, one of the best!”

“You have no battlefield experience, this is much wilder fighting than anything else you’ve experienced on castle grounds.” The General narrowed her eyes. “Tell your father we don’t need you here.”

Soren’s stomach tightened, there was no way he was going to go back to his father now. He had to convince her. “Yes, you do need me! The Elves are winning! You need everyone you can get! And my father didn’t send me, he doesn’t even know I’m here.

She smiled slightly, looking a bit more interested. “Are you telling me you’re going against Viren’s orders?”

He looked down at his feet but made sure she could still read his lips. “…I don’t think we have the same morals anymore.”

Amaya sighed and thought a moment before replying. “Tell you what, stay here and help with the war effort and neither of us will tell your father where you are.”

“So you’ll let me stay?”

“As long as you understand that war isn’t a walk in the park.” Joan translated “You’ll be out during the day, since your last run in with Moonshadow elves didn’t go very well. While you’re out here you’ll me my charge. While you’re at the rift you follow my orders, not your father’s, understand?”

Soren smiled and saluted “Yes Sir!”

 

* * *

 

 

He headed to the armory, a bit reluctant to switch in his gear. This armor was his position, his medal for working so hard to become head of the Crown’s Guard. It made him stand out, and he liked it that way. But here he was just some random soldier and had to work his way back up to the top.

The armory was also the forge, and was one of the two stone buildings at the barracks, the other being the mess hall. Everything else seemed to be large communal tents.

He entered the wooden door to find three people; a soldier waiting on a bench, and two Blacksmiths on the other side of stone counter. Both smiths were in their early twenties and had similar sturdy builds and olive skin. One, a woman chipped black rock off a sword furiously with a chisel, the other, a man tallied the armor hung along the back wall.

The man put down his chart and looked to Soren expectantly. “What you here for?”

He shifted awkwardly. “I’m Soren, new here. I guess I need to replace my armor.”

The Smith chuckled “Well, you came to the right place. I’m Ward, and this” He gestured to the female Blacksmith “Is Wynne, we’ll get you set up. Hand your old stuff over.”

Soren complied, feeling strange without the weighted protection from his armor.

Wynne dunked the sword she’d been working on into a basin to clean off the residue and slammed it angerly on the table for the waiting soldier on the bench. “If you stick this sword in the Lava one more time, I’ll have your skin, Curt, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am” Said Curt sheepishly as he picked it up and slinked out the door.

She turned to him. “You said you were new, ya got the rundown yet?”

“Not yet,” He said, “But I know I’m working days.”

“It’s fairly simple;” Wynne explained “Shiftwork. Half of you go out in the day and half a night. Those on the Lunar shift go against Moonshadow and Stargazer elves, those on Solar shift fight Sunfire, Skywing, and sometimes Earthform Elves. You won’t see any sea elves round here. You notice the silence around the barracks?”

“Yeah, is something wrong? It’s almost spooky.”

“Nah,” Said Ward, who picked a set of armor off a shelf. “that’s just how it is. Sleep’s a valuable commodity here at the Rift. Being well rested can be the difference between coming back at the end of your shift or not. You do NOT want to wake up some one who’s going back to the battle field in a few hours.”

He passed the armor and a sword over to Soren. “This should be safer,” He said, “It’s resistant to Sunforge blades.”

Soren fit the breastplate over his head. “How did we mirror Sun Elf magic?”

“We didn’t.” He said “Sunforge blades stay hot forever because of Sunfire magic, but it’s ingenuity that kept them strong. I doubt you’ve ever forged a blade yourself, but when they’re hot, weapons are really weak-“

“-Easily broken or dented,” Wynne cut in “And at the temperature Sunfire elves can work at, meltable. “

Soren shrugged. “From what I’ve seen Sunforge blades are just as strong as any other…”

“It’s ‘cause of the ore used for ‘em.” Ward continued “It’s forged at crazy high temperatures, so it doesn’t melt or break from heat. Once we figured out what the elves were doing, we started doing it too. We might not be able to melt though solid stone with our swords, but at least we can make sure that they don’t melt though our armor with theirs.”

Wynne picked up his old sword from the crafting table. “I will admit, this one’s pretty nice too. It wouldn’t be up to Rift standards, but it’s quite impressive for Katolis forging. Where did you get it?”

“It was a gift from Queen Sarai from when I became head of the Crown guard. She worked with my father when they were younger.”

“Bullshit.” She said dubiously, “It’s a cool story, but I’m not buying it.”

Ward smiled “And even if you were the head of the Guard before, now you’re just some foot soldier, so don’t try to though your weight around.”

“You haven’t seen what I can do yet.” Soren smirked. “Who’s leading the other side? The baddest elf I could fight?”

Wynne scowled. “Not that I’d encourage you to go after them, but the Head of the Elven Army is a Sunfire Warrior, the one who killed Queen Sarai. That’s why General Amaya had been known to go out in the day; to try and take down the Sun elf herself. She has a vendetta against the Elf who killed her sister, see? Anyone who hurts someone Amaya cares about better watch out.”

Knowing what had happened to Gren, Soren wondered if he should add himself to that list.

Soren poked a little deeper “Didn’t Amaya coming back from night duty tonight? Probably not the best time to find a Sun elf.”

“Yeah, things have changed since she came back to the battlefront.” Ward admitted “They don’t tell us much at our rank, but something bad happened back at Katolis right?”

Soren nodded “Moonshadow assassins came in an killed the king. Later we found out the Princes we kidnapped. Apparently, Amaya intercepted them, but they got away.”

“Got away from Amaya?” Wynne asked, raising her eyebrows “Didn’t even think that was possible. Guess that’s why her grudge has moved to the Moon elves.”

Ward elbowed his sister playfully. “You know, Wynne here has a shine on the General.”

A wistful look crossed her face “Amaya’s just so brave and strong and…” Wynne stopped when she noticed her brother’s snickering. “Hey!” She blushed “I don’t make fun of you when you fall for every girl you see.”

“You totally do!”

She thought for a moment and shrugged smugly “Okay, yeah I do a bit.”

Soren rolled his eyes. “Anyway, I should probably figure out where I’m going next.”

Ward nodded “Just head to the mess hall, General Ross should be setting the new recruits up for breakfast soon. Good luck!”

“Nothing I can’t handle!” He said, heading out the door towards something he definitely could not handle.


End file.
